The New York City Football Club will play its inaugural Major League Soccer season at Yankee Stadium, but the men in pinstripes won’t be welcoming the Beautiful Game with open arms.
Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira was blunt while talking with the New York Daily News: “It’s going to suck,” he said, “but you have to deal with it. It’s going to tear up the infield, but there’s nothing we can do about it, so we’ll deal with it.”
But officials from both teams did what they could to minimize the stress caused to the field. Per the Wall Street Journal, the stadium’s grounds crew “will always have at least three days to change the field from baseball to soccer and vice versa, with the exception of one two-day midsummer window.”
Plus, Yankee Stadium has hosted soccer games in the past, most recently last summer, when Liverpool and Manchester City played an exhibition. And Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner said soccer games are better for the field than other events like boxing matches or concerts. Still, Gardner is worried, per the WSJ:
The issue, Gardner said, comes when the grass must be entirely replaced. That’s when he and his fellow outfielders fear injury.
“Problem is the root system. After you put new grass down, there’s no root system, so essentially you’re running full speed on top of AstroTurf that’s sitting on top of cement,” Gardner said. “And that grass will give way, and you blow something out—knee, ankle.”
NYCFC will play two games at the stadium — on Sunday and March 28 — before the Yankees play their home opener on April 6.
After spending the first 17 years of his Post career writing and editing, Matt and the printed paper had an amicable divorce in 2014. He’s now blogging and editing for the Early Lead and the Post’s other Web-based products.
